White House: FCC Raising E-rate Cap Is Essential

The White House Wednesday called the FCC proposal to raise the E-rate cap by $1.5 billion an "essential step" in the President's ConnectED initiative.

That shout out for FCC chairman Tom Wheeler's proposed revamp of E-rate, which the chairman outlined to reporters earlier this week came in an e-mail from the White House about a day-long White House event Wednesday, where the President met with educators from across the country to talk about that ConnectED initiative, whose goal is to connect 99% of students to high-speed broadband via schools and libraries.

Citing the FCC, the White House said that "68% of school districts report that not a single school in their district can meet high-speed connectivity goals."